Weavings of Black Radicalism: Mapping Communication Geographies of the Underground Railroad and the Movement for Black Lives

In five chapters, this study is on deliberative political injustices in a democracy. Inspired by the tensions between Black Marxism (2000) and The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (1991), Weavings of Black Radicalism examines the communication geography of (acts of) resistance, networks, and solidarity in U.S. Black communities seeking liberation. Focusing on two network case studies—the Underground Railroad and Movement for Black Lives —it emphasizes communicative and spatial practices that facilitate placemaking, circulation, and rhythmic interactions among Black and African peoples. It offers a conceptual framework weaving as the central explanatory schema, naming— warp, weft, and selvedge— as a response to why do material conditions impact the communicative and spatial strategies employed by Black radical struggles. I use weaving to demonstrate how intersecting and intertwining communicative and spatial productions unfold under varying material conditions of struggles, as Black communities strive for deliberative political liberation in the United States.